Page 8 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3

If social life is patterned - it isn't just a simple series of random,
purposeless or unstructured events - something must cause

institutionalised behaviour (a “pattern of shared, stable, behaviour”

such as a family). Is that “something” instinct or culture?

Instinct… Instincts have three main features; they tell an

animal:

The idea we have “instincts” that guide our • what to do,
behaviour in some way is still a fairly • when to do it and
common assumption in our society, for a • how to do it.
couple of reasons:
To clarify these ideas, consider this example:
Firstly, we are taught that animal behaviour is
guided by instincts, by which we generally What? Every year blue tits nest in my garden,
mean to be some sort of genetic programming in the bird box I’ve so thoughtfully provided
that tells them how to behave (they for them (except, I should add, when my
“instinctively know” how to do something). garden was being redesigned and I took the box
down. They nested in my barbecue instead, the
And since people are “essentially animals”, little scamps). This is evidence of instinctive
it’s only a short step to believe that some - if behaviour because the adult blue tits know
not necessarily all - human behaviour has a what they’ve got to do each year. They do not
similar instinctive basis. need to be taught this behaviour.

Secondly, the concept is frequently used in When? Aside from nesting every year, the blue
everyday language, where people use phrases tits also know at what point to start nest-
like “The striker’s instinct for goal” or “She building, egg-laying and chick-rearing. Again,
seemed to instinctively know they were this is instinctive behaviour because it doesn’t
talking about her”. have to be taught or learned.

This gives the idea a taken-for-granted How? Without fail, these birds build exactly
quality, something “everybody knows”, that the same sort of nest each year (a single-story
becomes part of our commonsense store of “everyone-in-it-together” affair). This, again, is
knowledge. instinctive behaviour because the adult birds
have no choice in the matter. Rather than build
While the concept of instinct does have some something a little more accommodating they
usefulness when explaining how and why just build the type of nest they’ve been
some animals behave as they do, its genetically-programmed to build.
usefulness when applied human behaviour
tends to be questioned by sociologists.

And to understand why, we need to be clear
about its meaning.

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